The present invention relates generally to electric toasters and, more particularly, to electric toasters of the semi-automatic or automatic type wherein the time interval during which the bread is toasted is selectively and automatically controlled to provide for repeated uniform toasting action of bread slices or of convenience foods which are placed in the toaster.
It is desirable in a toaster to provide automatic means for controlling the toasting cycle, which means automatically compensate for the ambient temperatures within the toaster in order to provide uniform toasting for successive bread slices. The toaster of the Jepson et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,361,053, issued on Jan. 2, 1968 to the assignee of the present application, discloses a toaster which has a radiation sensitive means for providing such compensation. Convenience foods which include frozen foods such as waffles, filled tarts, toasted pizza, french toast, muffins, cinnamon sticks, corn bread, etc. are becoming increasingly popular, and it is highly desirable to provide a toaster which toasts these to the proper degree of toasting so that they are as tasty as possible. These foods are generally stored in a freezer or refrigerator, and if they are directly inserted into a toaster which is suitable for toasting bread, the wattage output of the toaster, and the consequent amount of higher wavelength radiation that is present, will be much greater than is optimum for these foods and they will become overcooked and dried out on the outside but they will not be sufficiently cooked on the inside. In addition, it has been found that, while some adjustment for the heating or toasting of convenience foods is required, according to whether or not they are frozen, refrigerated or at room temperature when they are inserted into the toaster, the range of adjustment which is necessary for the automatic toasting of convenience foods with the disclosed toaster is less than that required for the automatic toasting of bread.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a relatively simple control means which limits the toasting range of an automatic toaster and which reduces the wattage output of the toaster when convenience foods are to be toasted.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for an automatic bread toaster so that the toaster may alternately be operated as a convenience food heater or toaster wherein the toaster preferably provides substantially uniform heating for the object being heated or toasted regardless of whether the object is a slice of bread or a convenience food.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description.